Nigerian spared from stoning

2003-11-14 20:06

Kano, Nigeria - An Islamic appeal court has overturned a 36-year-old Nigerian's adultery conviction and saved him from being stoned to death, a state spokesman said Friday.

If Yunusa Rafinchiyawa's sentence had been upheld he would have become the first Nigerian to be stoned since 1999, when the west African country's Muslim north began to bring back Sharia law.

But on Thursday the Upper Sharia Court in the town of Bauchi, the capital of Bauchi State, ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove that the accused had eloped with his neighbour's wife.

Bauchi State spokesman Mohammed Abdullahi told reporters that since his conviction by a lower court in the village of Ningi, Rafinchiyawa had withdrawn his confession.

"The presiding judge, Dahiru Abubakar, argued that since Rafinchiyawa's conviction was based on confession which he later withdrew the prosecution had to provide fresh evidence," he said.

"The prosecution failed to prove that Rafinchiyawa actually had an affair," he said.

The accused was convicted in the Lower Sharia Court in Ningi on April 4, 2000 after allegedly running away with his friend's pregant wife, A'isha Haruna, and living with her for two weeks.

The court heard that the pair had been lovers, but Haruna was cleared of adultery when she told the court she had been hypnotised by Rafinchiyawa using black magic charms.

Rafinchiyawa was reportedly unapologetic about the incident, declaring his love for Haruna and bragging that he had made love to her day and night and would do it again, given the chance.

Following his conviction, however, he withdrew the confession.

Hearing the appeal, Abubakar said that in the absence of a confession Sharia law requires that there are four witnesses to an act of adultery for sentence to be passed.

Bauchi's police chief did not turn up at the appeal to offer new evidence, and Mohammed said that the state would not appeal the acquittal, leaving Rafinchiyawa free to resume his life.

Twelve northern Nigerian states have reintroduced some form of Islamic law since the country's return to civilian rule in 1999, but so far no-one has been stoned to death.

Several people have been cleared of sex offences on appeal, amid signs that state governors are seeking to avoid offending international opinion or Nigeria's secular federal government.

- SAPA